One of the many surprises of North Korea was the number of blue-and-white stalls selling drinks, snacks and other tidbits set up by the roadside. According to our Singaporean tour leader, these were new, as she had not seen them in her previous trips to North Korea including one as recently as Spring 2007. Our Korean guide told us that these were state-owned and it is true that all of them did follow the same blue-and-white colour scheme and many of the ones we saw in the towns did seem to be extensions of existing state-run stores. In the smaller villages outside Wonsan, however, several of the stalls looked more like they were independently-run outfits.
The density of stalls seemed to be higher in Wonsan than Pyongyang despite much higher population density in the latter. A sign of looser ideological control in the provinces, or just a natural consequence of Wonsan being closer to the farms ?
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